Haddon Elves

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Cousins

Lil'T and I have just returned from Hawaii. We went to stay with Mom while she recovered from surgery. While it was unfortunate for us to have to go to Hawaii for that reason, it was good to visit with friends & family. My cousin Sham had us over for Halloween. Her 3 kids and Lil'T went trick or treating together. Sham dressed her kids as Santa, Frosty & an Elf. You might think that my cousin got the holiday wrong but I suspect that her Ilocano roots were showing -- why by 2 sets of costumes when you can reuse them for 2 holidays instead? Brilliant! Lil'T was about the same size (actually a little taller) than her 5 year old boy cousin. Eh, that happens when you're 1/2 Filipino and 1/2 Japanese. This past summer we visited my brother and his family in San Francisco. His kids are about 1/4 Filipino and 3/4 Chinese. Despite Lil'T being about 6 months younger than her twin cousins, she towers over them. I wonder where she gets that height? I hope she doesn't develop a complex. She doesn't seem that much bigger than her haole classmates at preschool.

One of Lil'T's favorite things to do with me is read books. I think this is the part where I characterize her as being an exceptional learner, bound for greatness -- heck, she can even aspire to the 2nd highest office in the land if she wants. But only aspire. We girls need to learn our place. *sigh* Only time will tell. And like thousands of other 3 year old kids out there, she loves Dora. We have a book called Dora's World Adventure. I have learned recently that the devious kid programmers who make Dora the Explorer have also made a music cd and dvd of this book. They have made it unsafe to walk through the video aisle at Safeway. Thankfully, Lil'T is still too young to go to any music stores on her own.

In this adventure, Dora and Swiper take us on a magical journey around the world -- visiting France, Tanzania, Russia and China. In each place we see a picture of kids from that area and learn how to say hello to them in their native tongue. Very cute to hear Lil'T say, "bonjour," in her 3-year old toddler accent. But the very best part was turning the page to Dora's journey to China. Pictured were 5 or 6 Chinese kids -- short, brown, dark haired and slanty eyed. To which Lil'T commented, "Look at all the cousins." It took me a beat to figure out what she was saying. But I guess when all the kids you meet on your travels are brown, have dark hair and slanty eyes, and are called cousins by your mom, that must be the word for them.

Ni hao Cousins!

What's Happening?

Today I went to my first Zumba! class. I think you're supposed to have an exclamation mark on the end of the word because it is just such a happy class. So much fun. I actually had a blast.

But I'm not in shape.

Well, as my friend Steve likes to say, "I'm in shape. Round is a shape."

So next to the teeny tiny energizer bunny instructor, I felt like a blimp. A very nimble blimp though. Dude, I may be fat but I still can dance.

So when my friend Julia asked me what I thought of the class, I told her to recall an old sitcom character that we both grew up watching. I told her that seeing myself dance in Zumba! class reminded me of watching Rerun from What's Happening?

But I always think of that Hallmark-y quote that says, "Sing like nobody can hear you and Dance like nobody is looking."

So I am dancing like I'm wearing a beret and suspenders. But I'm having a great time and I'll even let you watch if you like.